check, and a residential which RAF
officers usually take in their twenties.
“Welbeck is for engineering,” she tells me.
“But they do offer places for Logistics
students. I really am the most hopeless
engineer in the world but I’m entering as a
Logistic officer. They only offer five places
a year for what I want to do, and if they
don’t find students of the right calibre
they don’t fill the spaces – last year they
only took one person.”
I’d no real idea of what it’s like at an
institution such as Welbeck. “You’re living
away at a normal boarding school with
A-levels,” I’m informed. “The difference is
that for the equivalent of one day a week
you’re doing military training.
“I can go to the pool whenever, swim in
the morning, swim in the evening, I’ve got
the tennis courts, I’ve got hockey, there
is always something on until about ten
at night. It’s like being on a constant air
cadet camp,” Ciara states regarding what
her days will be like should she win a spot
at Welbeck.
But what will leaving Carterton mean for
someone who has lived here pretty much
all their life, whose education has taken
place here, who “love it to pieces”?
“Leaving really upsets me,” she admits.
“But it’s about what I want to do when
I’m older and this is the right track to go
down. A gate has opened and I’ve taken it.”
Anyway, Ciara, described by the Mayor
as “an ambassador for the town”, would
be returning from Welbeck every three
weeks. “I’m going to be coming back so
often I’m going to feel like I’m still here.
“I know it’s a cliché,” she says as we
discuss her love for this town, “but I’ve
never had a bad thing to say about
Carterton. We’ve got everything we could
possibly want. We’ve got Hacketts, several
playparks, and a cinema just down the
road. The community events are constant,
at least once a month, more than most
towns, and it really brings about a
community spirit.”
Ciara draws attention to the constant
turnover of people Carterton experiences
due to being an RAF town. Despite this
she maintains you can still get to know
people and she can go into town every
day and see somebody she knows. “Our
community is so tight-knit,” she states,
“and there’s a sense of pride when you’re
part of a community that works with the
RAF – I think that’s really important.”
Fond of Carterton as I am, I suggested
that someone coming to Carterton for the
first time, having a bit of a nose around,
may be surprised that someone could be
as passionately praising of it as Ciara is.
“I think you’re fully right in saying, if
you come to Carterton, visually there’s
nothing that says there’s a cinema here
or ‘come and have a coffee’ – that type
of thing,” the student answers. “But the
hidden secrets of Carterton are what
make it the best. If you were to stay here
for two hours you’d realise that. Driving
through doesn’t show anybody what
Carterton is really like, I think that’s what
Lynn is trying to improve on.
“Without Lynn I’m not sure what would be
happening with Carterton right now,” she
continues. “The future for the town, if it
keeps heading in the direction it is now, is
incredibly bright. It’s a secret that’s waiting
to be told and I think the future is going
to tell it.”
With Lynn Little, Ted Little and others at
the Queen’s 90th Birthday beacon lighting
David Cameron and Damian Booth, Executive Head
of Carterton Community College Sixth Form posing
with the Community Champions for Jeans Up Friday
103
